LASIK FAQs

If you wear soft lenses it is advisable to stop wearing them for 1 week before the pre-operative consultation but if it is not possible for you to stop wearing them for 1 week then the minimum that you should stop them for is 3 days.

If you wear hard/ gas permeable lenses it is advisable to stop wearing them for 2 weeks or for a minimum of 1 week prior to the pre-operative consultation.

Because there may be some changes in the shape of the cornea or lens during pregnancy as a result of the hormonal changes it is not advisable to have laser vision correction as it will lead to a risk of inaccuracy.

However you can consider having the surgery 3months after your delivery and there is no need to be worried about not being able to breast feed after the surgery, it is totally fine.

Laser vision correction is not known to be harmful to a foetus/ an unborn child.

Common side effects are dry eyes, light sensitivity, glare and halos during the first few weeks, but most of these side effects will subside over time.

Blindness could occur only if a serious complication such as infection or scarring occurs. But this is very rare as antibiotic eye drops are prescribed as a routine to prevent such infections or scarring from occurring.

EEC’s staff and doctors are highly trained and experienced in LASIK surgery, therefore you will be in very safe hands and even if the worst case of infection occurs, EEC is backed with one of the most experienced cornea surgeon who can treat the patient “Free” to regain eyesight.

This depends on whether you are doing the pre-LASIK assessment and surgery on the same day or if you are doing this on a separate day.

For pre-LASIK Assessment and Surgery to be done on the same day:

The pre-LASIK assessment which will require for your pupils to be dilated, will take about 2-3hrs. After which if you are found suitable for the procedure you will need to wait for about 4-6hrs for your pupils to constrict in order to undergo the surgery. And once ready, you will be brought in to the preparation room to do the necessary pre-surgery preparations of which will take about 30 mins and thereafter your surgery time for both eyes will only take 10mins.

For Assessment and Surgery to be done on different days:

On the pre-LASIK assessment day, it will take about 2-3hrs from start to finish.

On the surgery day, pre-surgery preparation will take about 30mins and the surgery for both eyes will take only 10mins.

For LASIK surgeries, the recovery period would usually take about 24 hours. Most patients will experience better functional vision within this 24 hrs and thereafter their vision will gradually improve over the next few days. That being said, the stability of the vision will vary from person to person, some may take 1 month while others may take up to 3 months for their vision to stabilize.

For Epi-LASIK surgeries, the recovery period would usually take about 5 days to about 1 week and about 1-3 months for your vision to stabilize.

However we can perform the surgery on a separate sitting if you wish. After the first surgery is done, you can do the second surgery the following day or one week later.

But this is not advised as you may experience giddiness and discomfort due to imbalance of vision during the interim period between the first and second eye. There were concerns regarding the safety of simultaneous LASIK initially but from our experience and from many others’ experiences, it has been shown that simultaneous LASIK does not have significant increase in risk compared to LASIK done on a separate sitting. In fact, simultaneous LASIK offers significant reduction in downtime and convenience.

In general, normal activities can be resumed after 1 week but please refrain from swimming or water sports for 2 weeks. In addition, for LASIK surgery patients, we would advise you to avoid contact sports for 1 month to avoid accidental injury to the corneal flap.

In some cases with undercorrection or overcorrection after the initial laser treatment, enhancement surgery can be performed and this enhancement surgery can be done about 4 months after the LASIK procedure.

This time interval is to allow stability of the refraction to be achieved before enhancement surgery is performed.

Yes, you can still wear your spectacles if the treatment doesn’t give you satisfactory results.

But for contact lenses, it may not be possible to wear soft contact lenses in all cases as the shape of the cornea has been changed by the laser surgery whereas for hard contact lenses, it is can be fitted for all post LASIK cases.

On the other hand what we can do for you is to plan for an enhancement surgery to help make your vision as satisfactory to you as possible. However, so far our enhancement rate is very low ~1%, hence we don’t ever expect patients to need contact lenses again.

To determine if you are a suitable LASIK candidate the best method is to make an appointment with us for a thorough pre-LASIK assessment. Without examining your eyes physically, there is no way to tell if you are a suitable candidate for the surgery.

The general criteria that you must however first fulfil would be that you have to be older than 18, that you are not pregnant, that you have no Cataract, Glaucoma or any retina diseases. Further tests will then be needed to determine degree, cornea shape and thickness for a true LASIK suitability determination.